The United States Copyright Office receives over 450,000 registration requests annually, according to a 2017 report.

Perhaps this year you’d like to be one of those registrants.

However, you still don’t know the answer to the question, “How do I copyright something?” You probably know that there are some legal hurdles you need to overcome to get your idea copyrighted.

So, let’s cover the basics of copyright law and how you can obtain that copyright for your latest project.

What is a copyright, and why do you need one?

The purpose of a copyright is hidden in the name. A copyright gives you—and any other authorized parties—permission to copy something.

Registering a copyright for something you’ve created prevents others from stealing your intellectual property. Therefore, only you can reproduce your creation and reap the financial benefits.

To copyright your work, it needs to be tangible. Therefore, you can’t copyright your idea for a song or film. However, you can copyright the work after it’s completed, printed, or produced.

Types of projects you can copyright include:

• Artwork
• Graphic design
• Novels, plays, and poetry
• Films
• Architectural designs and projects
• Software
• As long as you created your project and haven’t copied or duplicated someone else’s work, you have a chance to register it.

Let’s say you’ve written a book about the Beatles. There are many other books out there about the famous band, but yours covers new topics, so you want to publish it and reap the benefits of your research and hard work.

However, another author may be on the same path as you. They didn’t copy you, but they discovered the same information. If they publish their work first, they’ve usurped your copyright.

And that’s precisely why you need a copyright. Once you own the work—and if you can prove that the other author read your research before claiming it as their own—you won’t be entitled to the unauthorized profits they make from the publication.

The only situation where a copyright would be useless in such a scenario is if you both published your Beatles books at the same time. Simultaneous co-creation proves that you didn’t have access to each other’s information, and therefore, you both have permission to copyright the information.

However, this would be a rare scenario, and most copyrights help protect your intellectual property. Furthermore, a granted copyright stays with you for the rest of your life—and beyond. Specifically, it lasts up to 70 years after your death.

How to copyright something?
When you create something that required a lot of intelligence and creativity to develop, it is your intellectual property. Therefore, copyright registration is a way to protect your intellectual property rights.

It’s also quite simple to obtain a copyright. Technically speaking, you have a copyright as soon as you complete your project. But if you want to make it official, simply visit the U.S. Copyright Office website and get started.

You’ll be surprised to find that obtaining a copyright isn’t expensive either. As of fall 2020, it cost just $45 to register a single-author work that wasn’t made for hire. All other copyrights cost an additional $20.

Of course, there’s plenty of help available when it comes to protecting your work, whether it’s copyright, trademark, or any other safeguards. A trademark attorney can help you file claims on your work, for example.

What is Constructive Notice?
Once you obtain a copyright, you can take legal action, if necessary, to protect your creative work.

You can assert your legal rights to your creation from the date the copyright is issued. This offers even more protection than, say, proving that the author of the Beatles book may have read your research before writing their own project.

With copyright and constructive notice, it doesn’t matter whether they read your book or not. Once you register your project—and prove you did so before they wrote and published theirs—you’ll have a solid copyright claim to make.

You can understand why this is a valuable resource to have on hand. It means you’ll make money from your ideas, but it also means you won’t have to go through the stress and frustration of seeing someone else take credit for what’s yours.